The Earth isn’t such a happy place these days, but Marilyn Englander finds solace by looking up into the heavens.
As California shut down once again, I felt my spirits plunging as well.
It’s no longer working to say, “Just hang on.” I need to look beyond myself for a lift.
So I took a walk along the closest stretch of water I could find. It’s a working marina, not a beauty spot. The water is murky, the shore an unappealing scum of crusty algae on mud. But there was a sea breeze, and an open vista across the bay.
On an unremarkable patch of shore sat a mother with her two children, the baby in a stroller pushed down to the water’s edge. Plotzed in the brown shallows sat a chubby 2-year-old. She filled and poured her little bucket, utterly mesmerized and delighted, unaware that she’s banished this summer to a no-name place. Her mother was tanning happily in the same sun that shines down on the empty beaches. The baby snoozed to the soothing lap of waves.